This invention in general relates to housings for conventional cameras (film or digital, but primarily digital) and other digital devices with integral photographic capability to be used for underwater applications and, more particularly, to underwater camera housings that are adaptable for use with a wide range of cameras having different user interface architectures.
For a variety of reasons, camera manufacturers do not adhere to any standard layout for the arrangement, function, and operation of the controls that must be used in the course of taking pictures. Digital cameras with added displays and menu driven selections for control of camera functions and picture taking settings introduce additional complexity and diversity. As a consequence, makers of underwater camera housings have been forced to provide designs that match the control requirements of individual camera models. Thus, most underwater camera housings are more or less uniquely designed for specific camera models and will work with no others or, at best, with a narrow range of cameras. The fact that each camera requires a unique underwater housing obviously results in higher prices since there is no opportunity to take advantage of economies of scale. In addition, every time a user acquires a new camera, a corresponding new underwater housing must be purchased to match that camera's control arrangement.
In addition to the problems associated with the need for unique underwater camera housings for every camera, other problems exist with current underwater housings for all cameras. One of these has to do with the optical properties of underwater housings. Typically, a flat window is provided so that the camera taking lens can “see” what a diver intends to photograph. However, the use of flat windows introduces undesirable distortion and narrows the camera's inherent field of view. Moreover, housings with flat transmission windows often cause artificial light from a camera to reflect into the camera where it becomes an unwanted part of the photograph thus degrading its quality.
In view of the many problems associated with known underwater camera housings, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a universal underwater camera housing that can be used with a large range of commercially available film and digital still and video cameras and other digital devices such as PDAs and cell phones equipped with photographic functionality.
It is another object of the present invention to provide underwater camera housings with improved optics for film and digital photography.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide underwater camera housings having interior features for controlling reflections from camera strobes and the like so that they do not reach a camera's detector or film as stray light.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter when the following detailed description is read in connection with the appended drawings.